Church of Christ: The Church is Not the Real Thing!

Jesus Christ has said many times to deny the self and help others. How good are we at doing such a thing? At the individual level it may be easier however, at the level of a collective it is not. One such collective is the church. There in the business of selling faith to believers.

They ask for your money and your silent obedience in return when you die you will go to heaven. However, if you do not obey them they assure you that you will burn! This simply is not the case they have already done the first sin but, they want you to think you sinned first by not listening to them. So what is this mysterious sin the committed?

The church committed self-righteousness! There model Jesus Christ told them to deny the self and help others. To deny the self you need to deny that self-righteousness don't you? By denying the self than you become righteous!

Before I go on I would like to say that I am a Christian by definition! I do believe solely in the words and teachings of Christ. I am not an atheist, agnostic or another religious follower trying to put doubt in your beliefs, I am here to shed light on this issue of what the church of Christ is truly about!

II. Christ and Church Members

There are two very noticeable problems with any religious organization that follows Christ! They are church officials and the way they dress. Priest still dress in fancy robes and in order to be forgiven of sin you need to go to the priest to get "absolution" from sins! This simply is not the case! The issue of "absolution" is more tied closer to Roman Catholicism.

Now in John 14:6 Jesus clearly stated "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Yet in order to gain forgiveness you have to tell the priest your sins who are dressed up in fancy robes. That simply just does not sound right! How conceited can one church be to think that "Unless you tell me your sins and repent God will hate you and let you burn!" Yes, repent for your Sins but do it in a prayer and be sincere in that prayer and than make up for that sin and do something virtuous in replacement of the sin. So if you masturbate frequently for example, than stop masturbating even if it is a slow process progressively cut down on the frequency. One would need to start weaning oneself off the need for self-gratification.

In, Luke 20:46 Jesus warned us to beware of "the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets." They sound a lot like priest you would find in church especially in Roman Catholic church! This here is the other big noticeable problem. Why would a church that was founded by Christ contradict him? Unless they were not the right people, but, the contradictors and hypocrites.

Jesus in Matthew 23:25 Jesus dislikes the hypocrites ""Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence." Again Jesus backs up what I am saying here that the church is a business in selling "they're faith" to the blind for a price and there greed and self-indulgence have been made possible by the blind followers.

Public Prayer is a "no-no" also. For in Matthew 6:5 Jesus says "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." However, the context of the passage of Matthew 4-6 is the whole message and still rings true. When you go to church to worship the church would have you believe it is a sin to not come to church regularly. Why is that? So than they can continue to brainwash and attempt to get more $$$ out of you!

III. Dogmatism

Dogmatism by definition is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted. Dogmas are found in many religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, where they are considered core principles that must be upheld by all followers of that religion. Rejection of dogma is considered heresy in certain religions, and may lead to expulsion from the religious group.

Now, a religion that was founded on a loving being of Jesus Christ who taught acceptance and unconditional love has in fact been contradicted again. If you reject the church the church rejects you? That sounds a lot like an "eye for an eye" but, Jesus taught "turning the other cheek." Didn't he? Yes and look at how far the church took that message "you let go of us we let go of you!" What type of representation of a loving man's ideology is that? Its pitiful and gives a bad name to Christianity.

IV. Tactics

So as you can see the current church is nothing more than a greedy and rich organization out for your money because, money is political and economic power and is a means to get even more cash. So there you have what's and who's of the church. Now what about the how? How do they get away with what they do? Simple four techniques used since man ruled over man. They brainwash, create a veil of ignorance and lies, play on your beliefs and values and finally, they rely on the curiosity of people in regards to the spiritual unknown.
So how does the church brainwash people?

Simple, find people that are faithful in something they cannot see and than act like you know what they have faith in. They will than use guilt to drive people to their own will. "You're going to burn in hell unless you repent through my beliefs!" This is why any religious organization talks about the hellfire and lakes of lava instead of the salvation and reward.

Ignorance and hatred is another focus point used by powerful religious organization. The church says that certain people are bad and to condemn them the blind and brainwashed people focus on all the hate and they forget the message of Christ to love each other and control your selfish desires. The blind and brainwashed use the hatred to than attack people that the church condemns as an excuse.

Hence, why there is violence in the name of religion. If there something you seek to know but might be occult or esoteric the church automatically condemns it and you're a heretic and deserve death! This creates even more ignorance because, if you seek to know you can't without the church making you feel guilty!

The church seems to like playing on beliefs, values and morals of the individuals. When a person says "that's wrong" the church jumps into action to create common ground with others that feel it was wrong to! That way they get more customers... I mean followers! "I am a homophobe, I do not like gays in fact I want to beat gays up!" The church than says "We condemn homosexuality!" That individual than says "Great I will join you guys and beat them up because, it goes against our beliefs!"

Than when the man does something wrong the church condemns his actions for his violence and hatred meanwhile there the same way. Hypocrites!

The church like I said earlier plays on your fears of the unknown! How do they do that? They say mental ill people are possessed by devils and that every sinful person is an agent for the devil. Although I believe in Angels, Demons, Heaven and Hell I can tell you that half the demonic possessions are just people trying to get attention! If I ran around saying "You devil!" and reject a mental patient, I have a feeling people will think I am nuts! Everyone sins but that does not mean that everyone signed there soul to the devil! We all done things we are and are not proud of.

So it is important to repent and make up for the wrong you have done.
So you see these fear tactics control you in a way you should not be controlled! Jesus said he was the truth. Look to see what Jesus has to say about things when it comes to helping you. All you need to do is approach what he says in the bible with an open mind! It could be metaphorical or literal which ever the case is approach it with an open mind!

V. Good Sides

Is the church all bad? As much as I had made them looked so low they have some good points. St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church's "model theologian," not only argued that reason is in harmony with faith, he even recognized that reason can contribute to understanding revelation, and so encouraged intellectual development.

The Church's priest-scientists, many of whom were Jesuits, were the leading lights in astronomy, genetics, geomagnetism, meteorology, seismology, and solar physics, becoming the "fathers" of these sciences. In addition, we must take into account the enormous body of religious music composed for the Catholic Church, a body which is profoundly tied to the emergence and development of the European tradition of classical music, and indeed, all music that has been influenced by it.

Francisco de Vitoria, a disciple of Thomas Aquinas and a Catholic thinker who studied the issue regarding the human rights of colonized natives, is recognized by the United Nations as a father of international law, and now also by historians of economics and democracy as a leading light for the West's democracy and rapid economic development. So without the church there would have been no Age of Enlightenment, International Law and yes, even, democracy, ironicaly! Let us not forget an organization such as this needs to keep there image looking good and give money to impoverished peoples.

Despite the few good things they have done the church still is a major source of problems. From imposing there beliefs in an increasingly secular world with its own problem. All the way to using tactics to control the masses of ignorant followers! How can you listen to hypocrites who contradict what there founder taught? In the world today it pays to self-educate yourself on a topic that effects your beliefs and values and that includes your religion especially if you have one! If you do not self-educate yourself than you are giving your religion a bad name!